I love exploring local ingredients, especially new vegetables that I’ve never heard of. This year I was introduced to sunchokes through our CSA, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. Since I’m always on the hunt for great vegan soups I had found a recipe for leek, potato and turnip soup, and my favorite variation of this I have made is this carrot and sunchoke soup.
My go-to kitchen tool for the fall is this immersion blender for making fall soups. I have this exact handheld blender and it is perfect for blending pumpkin, squash, etc. into purees, and any soup with potatoes or sunchokes into a creamy, delicious meal. I also like using my Dutch oven to make this soup, (any soup) because the steam helps reduce cooking time when simmering the vegetables, and the weight and depth of it helps when using the immersion blender.
Ingredients:
¼ cup avocado oil
1 small onion (or leeks)
4 cloves garlic
1 lb carrots
1 lb sunchokes
4 cups water
2 cups unsalted vegetable stock
1 tsp fresh sage
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Ground pepper
Directions:
Chop onion, garlic, carrots, and sunchokes
Heat avocado oil in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat
Add the onion to the oil and sauté for 6 minutes
Add garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes
Add sunchokes and carrots, cover the Dutch oven and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
Add the water, stock, sage, salt & red pepper flakes and simmer for 20 minutes, or until vegetables are soft enough to poke through with a fork
Take the Dutch oven off of the heat and blend with the immersion blender until everything is well crushed and mixed
Add freshly cracked pepper (be generous), and salt if needed
Garnish with some dried sage and I also added a little Firefly Farms goat cheese, but otherwise this recipe is entirely vegan. Goes great with a slice of homemade bread or croutons.
As I’ve researched the sunchoke I have read a bit about this vegetable causing excessive gas since it contains high levels of inulin. Every body is different and I recommend trying only one serving and waiting a day or two to have the leftovers in case it has an undesired effect on one’s gut. I personally didn’t experience any difference, but everyone is different! I’m not your average food blogger…yep we’re gonna talk about gas and gut here!
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